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Cemetery vandalism suspect held for not completing essay

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
07/13/2013 06:38:00 AM EDT

FITCHBURG -- A man accused of smashing 23 headstones at Laurel Hill Cemetery in May is being held for failing to complete an essay he was ordered to write as a term of his bail, according to court documents.

A warrant was put out for the arrest of Nicholas Brettschneider, 25, of 190 North St., Leominster, on June 25 when he failed to turn in to the court a 500-word essay on the Crocker family of Fitchburg ordered by Judge Andrew Mandell as part of his pretrial conditions of release.

Brettschneider was arrested in May and charged with vandalizing a gravestone, receiving stolen property, vandalizing property, larceny over $250 and larceny over $250 by false pretense after police said he sold a brass memorial plaque from the Crocker family lot in the cemetery to a scrap yard.

A document issued by Leominster District Court ordering the Worcester Sheriff's Office to transport Brettschneider to Fitchburg District Court was dated July 1 and stamped by a clerk magistrate of the District Court Department on July 5.

Brettschneider had a pretrial conference at Fitchburg District Court on Tuesday. A habeus corpus document ordering he return for his next court date on Aug. 13 shows his address as the Worcester House of Correction.

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